Communist by Richard Ford
"Communist" by Richard Ford is a reflective narrative centered on Les, a sixteen-year-old boy living with his mother in Montana in 1961. The story delves into Les's relationship with his mother, Aileen, and a man named Glen Baxter, a labor organizer and self-proclaimed communist who enters their lives. Baxter's arrival sparks a hunting trip for snow geese, which becomes a pivotal moment for Les. As they venture into the prairieland, the experience of witnessing the snow geese taking flight creates a fleeting sense of wonder. However, the day quickly turns grim when a debate over a wounded goose leads to a clash between Aileen and Baxter's ideologies. This incident symbolizes a deeper rift in their family dynamic, highlighting the complexities of life, loss, and the passage from childhood to adulthood. Ultimately, the narrative captures a moment of heightened awareness for Les, as he perceives the fragile nature of their relationships and the impending distance that will soon define them. The story reflects themes of memory, familial bonds, and the impact of choices on personal growth.
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Communist by Richard Ford
First published: 1985
Type of plot: Realism
Time of work: 1961
Locale: Near Great Falls, Montana
Principal Characters:
Les , the narratorAileen , his motherGlen Baxter , Aileen's boyfriend
The Story
Les, the forty-one-year-old narrator, looks back to 1961, when he was sixteen and still living with his mother in a house left by his late father. His mother, Aileen, was a part-time waitress in the nearby town of Great Falls, where she met Glen Baxter, a self-proclaimed labor organizer and communist who had seen a side of the world that Les could then only imagine. A transplanted Westerner, Baxter was a drifter who "stayed out of work winters and in the bars drinking with women like my mother, who had work and some money"—a common way of life in Montana. All of this is merely the backdrop. The real story that Les wants to tell happened in November of that year: a single day that he would forever remember as a turning point, his rite of passage into awareness, when life as he knew it would never again be the same.
Although two months pass during which Aileen does not see Glen Baxter, she is not pleased when he shows up from out of nowhere and wants to take Les hunting for snow geese. Unlike his mother, Les is pleased by Baxter's sudden reappearance and he enthusiastically accepts Baxter's invitation. Aileen strongly disapproves of senseless bloodletting—as well as the attempt at male bonding between her son and the man who has deserted her. Eventually, however, Baxter and Les prevail and Aileen rides with them into the Montana prairieland that appears to lack any sign of wildlife.
Baxter, however, knows that the snow geese are there, and he finds thousands of them stretched out across a low-lying lake away from the road. Baxter proves to be experienced as both a hunter and a guide. Les recalls the moment when the birds break off into flight, and thinks to himself that this is something he will never see again and will never forget. Unfortunately, that one memorable moment is quickly dwarfed by another.
Aileen reappears, her spirit temporarily lifted by the magical sight of the snow geese rising up into the big blue Montana sky. It is clear that Aileen is impressed both by the geese and by Baxter's grace and expertise with a shotgun. For one moment, at least, it seems as if all is well. Then Les makes the mistake of pointing out to his mother a wounded goose that is "swimming in circles on the water." Aileen insists that they should wade out in the lake to put the bird out of its misery, but Baxter disagrees. He tells Aileen that she does not understand the world, that one small mistake does not really matter much in the grand scheme of things. Then he settles the issue by firing four shots into the goose. When he turns around, Aileen is gone. Just like that, Les says, looking back on these sad and distant events, "A light can go out in the heart."
Later that night, after Baxter has left to lead whatever life he is destined to live, Les and Aileen share a tender moment together as geese pass by invisibly in the darkness overhead. For the first time, they see each other as they really are: not just mother and son, but two grown people who in a year's time will be like strangers passing silently in the night.
Bibliography
Ford, Richard. "What a Sea of Stories Tell Me." The New York Times Book Review, October 21, 1990, 1, 32-34.
Gray, Paul. "Trials of a Transient Household." Time 135 (June 4, 1990): 86.
Guagliardo, Huey, ed. Conversations with Richard Ford. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.
Guagliardo, Huey, ed. Perspectives on Richard Ford. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.
Prescott, Peter. "I Dreamed Our House Caught Fire." Newsweek 115 (June 11, 1990): 64.
Seabrook, John, and Maude Schuyler Clay. "Of Bird Dogs and Tall Tales." Interview 19 (May, 1989): 104-107.
Weber, Bruce. "Richard Ford's Uncommon Characters." The New York Times Magazine 137 (April 10, 1988): 50-51, 59-65.